So this over the past couple of weeks I’ve been doing a lot of yardwork – we have this little creek that runs through our backyard and I’ve been cleaning out the bank to make it look nice. Well my back has gotten pretty sore from so much rotation when raking up and throwing leaves and other debris around. I’ve also noticed my knee has been a little more sore and tender than usual.
Rather than taking a handful of Aleve (which won’t do anything except increase my cardiovascular risk & gasterointestinal bleed risk), I decided to take a step back and do a little exam on myself.
My back is a little flared up which means I have a low level nerve irritation which impacts the muscles of my knee. Turns out those irritated nerves in my low back are affecting how the muscles in my leg fire – the muscles are not able to control that side because the nerve input from the spinal nerves are off. This will change how my leg hits the ground everytime I walk and can cause some pinching in my knee joint (meniscus)
The good news is that this is an easy fix if you go to the right kind of doctor (someone like myself). Go to an orthopedic surgeon and you’ll end up on a steroid pack, NSAIDs and will get a cortisone injection in your knee. The problem is your pain will always come back since the problem is because of an irritated nerve in your low back.
The good news? Dry Needling & Electro-Acupuncture are great tools to calm down irritated nerves and knee pain. Don’t waste your time getting stuck in the healthcare system getting unnecessary treatments that will never actually help your problem.
